It quickly became routine. An unexpectedly tedious routine, yes, as restraining himself to the level of a mortal meant he was restricted from a great deal of the fortitude that he’d had as an Immortal Sovereign, but still— he’d spent centuries at a time refining celestial steel; not even a whole day working at a library wasn’t that bad. After hours, he either wandered around the city— the precinct really, the city was large enough he’d he’d yet to even fully grasp the totality of it— or found some secluded place on the moon or some far-off mountaintop to read whichever of the books had caught his fancy during the day.

  It was a simple routine. Relaxing. Comfortable, in a way entirely distinct to the endless paths, repeating revolutions of his existence in the Celestial Realm.

  Very, very mortal. And— that wasn’t even a bad thing.

  The days fled to weeks, and the weeks fled by, and— all too soon, graduation was passing. As librarians, the three of them got invited, even. Though Janus declined, he and Lexi both accepted— Lexi because of some sort of political necessity he neither grasped nor wanted to grasp, and himself more because he was just… curious.

  The ceremony was boring at the start, but everyone paid rapt attention as each graduating student stepped up to receive a diploma and a short ribbon which had a weak formation stitched into it. It was one of the only formations he’d seen since he’d arrived in the city, which was at least of some note, he supposed.

  Finally, as the crowd’s excitement drew to a fever pitch, and only a trio of students remained—

  A hush fell over the crowd.

  An unnatural hush fell over the crowd. It took him a second to realize it from beneath the suppression of his domain, but someone had pressed their spiritual perception down on the entire crowd, bashing their presence against the mortals’ souls with an indelible I am Here sort of self-announcement. Pretty rude, in his opinion, but by the reverence he could see amongst the crowd, he was clearly in the minority on that opinion.

  A woman in a white robe shot down from the sky, her hand deftly grabbing the pommel of the sword she’d been riding on and whipping it out from underneath just moments before she impacted the stage with a thud. The spiritual pressure disappeared as she bowed to the principal, who was— he noticed now with some interest— wearing, if not the same robes, at least the same color of suit. “Senior greets Junior Martial Brother Wang He. The Bloody Saffron Sect sends its regards to the graduating class of East Saffron’s 32nd Preparatory Academy, and its congratulations to graduates Zhiban Mei, Han Laoquan, and Pavi Ward for their acceptance into East Saffron Academy.” The three students— the ones who’d yet to receive their diplomas— all but swooned as the sect disciple called out their names.

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  Mingtian had to hand it to her— she certainly knew how to sell her performance. Only third step mortal, and she had them eating out of her hand like she was an Immortal Ascension elder. Even Lexi, who obviously wasn’t as taken with the whole performance as the others, was still watching with rapt attention.

  “If the honored Principal would allow me?” The principal bowed back, not quite managing to hide his nervousness. “Very well. Zhiban Mei!” The girl approached with wide eyes, straining to look up at the cultivator as she nervously grabbed the jade token she was given. From what he could glean from his position so far up in the stands, it was an access token of some sort… “take this, and bear the responsibility of it well. Your future awaits.” She gave the girl a small— almost unnoticeable smile. “Who knows? Perhaps you might even be my Junior Martial Sister one day?” Zhiban Mei swooned and…

  Well, at that point Mingtian kind of tuned out the graduation again, as the disciple did the same for the other two real graduates and then disappeared much the same way she’d come— with a childishly rude display of spiritual power and a rapid ascent into the sunny sky on her flying sword. Really, it was a whole lot of ceremony and showboating for kids who almost certainly wouldn’t make it to the sect proper.

  Still, he supposed he could allow that it’d been at least a little interesting. In the sort of, looking into the microcosm of the city’s and sect’s relationship, kind of interesting. Maybe he should spend a bit of time looking more deeply into the sect?

  Then again, if it was anything like what he’d found researching Beixian Port, maybe not.

  He’d almost forgotten just how violent mortals could be.

  He left with the ebb of the crowd as the graduation ended, spilled out into a wide field and a party, complete with free mortal junk food, which had no reason being as good as it was. He snorted as he wondered what the chef would think if he realized he’d been judged worthy by an Immortal. It’d probably be a funny sight…

  Still. He kept out of the way, and ate his dumplings, and luxuriated in the anticipation of how much free time he’d have now school was out for the summer.

  He hoped.

  Probably.

  Maybe.

  And the day wheeled on by.

  Yup, the sects and everything are still around, despite the more modern setting. Plenty of job opportunities for your local area walking magic nuke, after all.

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